Post by hyperion on Feb 24, 2012 4:07:54 GMT -5

Hi, I've got a Dexter-Jersey yearling heifer and I'm thinking ahead to where I want my milking area and how I will set it up. After reading a lot of posts on the topic, I decided to set up a stanchion for milking (maybe raised, since she's pretty short) and got lots of ideas from the pictures and plans posted here. My question: I have located a couple of old dairy barn stanchions that I could have pretty cheaply, that still work. Will they be too big for my heifer? How adjustable are they, if at all?Thanks

Post by bitoheaven on Feb 24, 2012 14:07:10 GMT -5

Most dairy stanchions are just the catch that holds the head. Is that what your looking at? If it is she would fit just fine. if it is a hole floor, rails on the side and head catch you might have to make some adjustments. We just put a small gate inside ours. is swivels at the front by her head. In the back we have a chain that comes around her rump and hooks. It pulls her close to the side that I milk on.

Post by briarrose on Feb 24, 2012 14:07:38 GMT -5

I got a bunch of the old ones that were concreted into a barn, they are the old style and they adjust down pretty small. My 6 month old jersey heifers do fine on the smallest setting. I think you would have to look at them and make sure that they adjust down. It's really easy to adjust them.

Post by ajplmama on Feb 24, 2012 18:01:37 GMT -5

I have the non-adjustable type and at 12 months she could escape it if she turned her horns just right. 4 months later she seems stuck in there.

Alicia

raising a family of 2 boys with my wonderful husband
creating a homestead
currently without a cow :(
one freezer full of beef
a coop full of hens
meaties heading to the freezer for winter
one crazy Chesapeake dog
a Maremma pup
one old cat and 2 kitties

Post by marion on Feb 24, 2012 20:54:39 GMT -5

Hi, If it is one of the ones shaped like an elongated oval that hang top and bottom from a few links of chain, they often have a couple of holes drilled in the non-swinging side. You can set a length of smooth narrow hardwood there and fasten with nuts and bolts through the holes. This will make it narrower for a smaller breed or young animal..marion

Post by brigitte on Feb 24, 2012 23:03:24 GMT -5

And another great thread for discussion.With a dexter jersey cross, you don't have the biggest concern which comes up with the use of the older stanchions...size...cows were smaller in the early to mid 1900s when most of these stanchions were in use. There are lots of good ones still out there.Although the wooden ones which latch into a single fixed position are quaint and useful...they tend to split after time and might be weak from wear in older barns which were wetter where they were chained into the floor. For commercial and even family cow raw milk purposes they are virtually useless even after coated with varnish because inspectors don't like wood. (okay, that's a whole nuther story)The best ones, and I am not sure what you have...are the combination metal and wood which were adjustable...three holes at the top usually. The wood lined the inner part. I refinished all of mine with rustoleum paint on the metal and heavy doses of varnish on the wood.Because commercial breeders and corporate dairies favor the bigger is better breeding of cows...even jerseys are bigger than they used to be. My milking shorthorn heifer, a small to medium heirloom breed, hardly fits on the third hole which was meant in the 1940s to fit the biggest holstein.My suggestion would be to make sure you secure them well...and set them off the ground a bit by fixing them in a four by four pressure treated timber...then from a parallel timber over their heads going across the barn. You should have an area in front where you can lay hay and grain.make sure the stanchion is secure...and that all wood is treated well. That said..these old stanchions are incredibly well designed to swivel and very useful

Post by ajplmama on Feb 25, 2012 15:37:09 GMT -5

I'd only ever seen the ones that you could attach wood to the inside for smaller animals until I got this one (which is smooth woth no way to attach wood slats).

Alicia

raising a family of 2 boys with my wonderful husband
creating a homestead
currently without a cow :(
one freezer full of beef
a coop full of hens
meaties heading to the freezer for winter
one crazy Chesapeake dog
a Maremma pup
one old cat and 2 kitties

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